National Key Basic Research Program Research Articles

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with nedaplatin versus cisplatin in stage II–IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma: an open-label, non-inferiority, randomised phase 3 trial

Cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy is currently considered to be the standard treatment regimen for patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but has well known side-effects such as gastrointestinal reactions, nephrotoxicity, and ototoxicity. Nedaplatin was developed to decrease the toxic effects induced by cisplatin, and in this trial we assessed whether a nedaplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy regimen was non-inferior to a cisplatin-based regimen in patients with locoregional, stage II-IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We did an open-label, non-inferiority, phase 3, randomised, controlled trial at two centres in China. Patients aged 18-65 years with non-keratinising stage II-IVB (T1-4N1-3 or T3-4N0) nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a Karnofsky score of at least 70, and adequate haematological, renal, and hepatic function were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive intravenously either nedaplatin 100 mg/m2 or cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on days 1, 22, and 43 for three cycles concurrently with intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Randomisation was done manually using a computer-generated random number code and patients were stratified by treatment centre and clinical stage. Patients and clinicians were not masked to treatment allocation. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival at 2 years; non-inferiority was shown if the upper limit of the 95% CI for the difference in 2-year progression-free survival between the two groups did not exceed 10%. Analyses were by both intention to treat and per protocol, including all patients who received at least one complete cycle of chemotherapy. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01540136, and is currently in follow-up. Between Jan 16, 2012, and July 16, 2014, we randomly assigned 402 patients to nedaplatin-based (n=201) or cisplatin-based (n=201) concurrent chemoradiotherapy. In the intention-to-treat population, 2-year progression-free survival was 89·9% (95% CI 85·8-94·0) in the cisplatin group and 88·0% (83·5-94·5) in the nedaplatin group, with a difference of 1·9% (95% CI -4·2 to 8·0; pnon-inferiority=0·0048). In the per-protocol analysis (cisplatin group, n=197; nedaplatin group, n=196), 2-year progression-free survival was 89·7% (95% CI 85·4-94·0) in the cisplatin group and 88·7% (84·2-94·5) in the nedaplatin group, with a difference of 1·0% (95% CI -5·2 to 7·0; pnon-inferiority=0·0020). A significantly higher frequency of grade 3 or 4 vomiting (35 [18%] of 198 in the cisplatin group vs 12 [6%] of 200 in the nedaplatin group, p<0·0001), nausea (18 [9%] vs four [2%], p=0·0021), and anorexia (53 [27%] vs 26 [13%], p=0·00070) was observed in the cisplatin group compared with the nedaplatin group. 11 (6%) patients in the nedaplatin group had grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia compared with four (2%) in the cisplatin group (p=0·065). Patients in the cisplatin group had a higher frequency of any grade or grade 3 or 4 late auditory or hearing toxicities than did patients in the nedaplatin group (grade 3 or 4: three [2%] in the nedaplatin group vs 11 [6%] in the cisplatin group, p=0·030). No patients died from treatment-related causes. Our findings show that nedaplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy represents an alternative doublet treatment strategy to cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy for patients with locoregional, advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Further investigations are needed to explore the potential use of this treatment as induction or adjuvant chemotherapy or in combination with other agents. National Key R&D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research 5010 Program, Sci-Tech Project Foundation of Guangzhou City, National Key Basic Research Program of China, Special Support Plan of Guangdong Province, Sci-Tech Project Foundation of Guangdong Province, Health & Medical Collaborative Innovation Project of Guangzhou City, National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period, PhD Start-up Fund of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, Cultivation Foundation for the Junior Teachers in Sun Yat-sen University, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Thickness Effect on (La0.26Bi0.74)2Ti4O11 Thin-Film Composition and Electrical Properties**Supported by the Basic Research Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action under Grant No 17JC1400300, the National Key Basic Research Program of China under Grant No 2014CB921004, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No 61674044, and the Program of Shanghai Subject Chief Scientist under Grant No 17XD1400800.

Highly oriented (00l) (La0.26Bi0.74)2Ti4O11 thin films are deposited on (100) SrTiO3 substrates using the pulsed laser deposition technique. The grains form a texture of bar-like arrays along SrTiO3 ⟨110⟩ directions for the film thickness above 350 nm, in contrast to spherical grains for the reduced film thickness below 220 nm. X-ray diffraction patterns show that the highly ordered bar-like grains are the ensemble of two lattice-matched monoclinic (La,Bi)4Ti3O12 and TiO2 components above a critical film thickness. Otherwise, the phase decomposes into the random mixture of Bi2Ti2O7 and Bi4Ti3O4 spherical grains in thinner films. The critical thickness can increase up to 440 nm as the films are deposited on LaNiO3-buffered SrTiO3 substrates. The electrical measurements show the dielectric enhancement of the multi-components, and comprehensive charge injection into interfacial traps between (La,Bi)4Ti3O12 and TiO2 components occurs under the application of a threshold voltage for the realization of high-charge storage.

Massive neutron stars and Λ-hypernuclei in relativistic mean field models**Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11525524, 11505157, 11375022, 11705163, 11621131001), National Key Basic Research Program of China (2013CB834400), the Physics Research and Development Program of Zhengzhou University (32410017) and the Office of Nuclear Physics in the U.S. Dept. of Energy. The computation for this work was supported by

Based on relativistic mean field (RMF) models, we study finite Λ-hypernuclei and massive neutron stars. The effective N-N interactions PK1 and TM1 are adopted, while the N-Λ interactions are constrained by reproducing the binding energy of Λ-hyperon at 1s orbit of . It is found that the Λ-meson couplings follow a simple relation, indicating a fixed Λ potential well for symmetric nuclear matter at saturation densities, i.e., around . With those interactions, a large mass range of Λ-hypernuclei can be described well. Furthermore, the masses of PSR J1614-2230 and PSR J0348+0432 can be attained adopting the Λ-meson couplings , for PK1 and , for TM1, respectively. This resolves the hyperon puzzle without introducing any additional degrees of freedom.

Inkjet printed large-area flexible circuits: a simple methodology for optimizing the printing quality * * Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Nos. 2014CB648300, 2017YFB0404501), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21422402, 21674050), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Nos. BK20140060, BK20130037, BK20140865, BM2012010), the Program for Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professors (No. RK030STP15001), the

In this work, a simple methodology was developed to enhance the patterning resolution of inkjet printing, involving process optimization as well as substrate modification and treatment. The line width of the inkjet-printed silver lines was successfully reduced to 1/3 of the original value using this methodology. Large-area flexible circuits with delicate patterns and good morphology were thus fabricated. The resultant flexible circuits showed excellent electrical conductivity as low as 4.5 Ω/□ and strong tolerance to mechanical bending. The simple methodology is also applicable to substrates with various wettability, which suggests a general strategy to enhance the printing quality of inkjet printing for manufacturing high-performance large-area flexible electronics.

Quantum oscillations and nontrivial transport in (Bi0.92In0.08)2Se3**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2014CB921103 and 2017YFA0206304), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1732159 and 11274003), and Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid-State Lighting and Energy-Saving Electronics, China.

Quantum phase transition in topological insulators has drawn heightened attention in condensed matter physics and future device applications. Here we report the magnetotransport properties of single crystalline (Bi0.92In0.08)2Se3. The average mobility of is obtained from the Lorentz law at the low field () up to 50 K. The quantum oscillations rise at a field of , revealing a high mobility of at 2 K. The Dirac surface state is evident by the nontrivial Berry phase in the Landau–Fan diagram. The properties make the (Bi0.92In0.08)2Se3 a promising platform for the investigation of quantum phase transition in topological insulators.

Near-interface oxide traps in 4H–SiC MOS structures fabricated with and without annealing in NO**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB759600), the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province, China (Grant No. 2017JM6003), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61774117 61404098 and 61274079).

Near-interface oxide traps (NIOTs) in 4H–SiC metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) structures fabricated with and without annealing in NO are systematically investigated in this paper. The properties of NIOTs in SiC MOS structures prepared with and without annealing in NO are studied and compared in detail. Two main categories of the NIOTs, the “slow” and “fast” NIOTs, are revealed and extracted. The densities of the “fast” NIOTs are determined to be and for the N2 post oxidation annealing (POA) sample and NO POA sample, respectively. The densities of “slow” NIOTs are and for the NO POA sample and N2 POA sample, respectively. It is found that the NO POA process only can significantly reduce “slow” NIOTs. However, it has a little effect on “fast” NIOTs. The negative and positive constant voltage stresses (CVS) reveal that electrons captured by those “slow” NIOTs and bulk oxide traps (BOTs) are hardly emitted by the constant voltage stress.

An easy way to controllably synthesize one-dimensional SmB6 topological insulator nanostructures and exploration of their field emission applications**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB933601), National Project for the Development of Key Scientific Apparatus of China (Grant No. 2013YQ12034506), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China, the Science and Technology Department

A convenient fabrication technique for samarium hexaboride (SmB6) nanostructures (nanowires and nanopencils) is developed, combining magnetron-sputtering and chemical vapor deposition. Both nanostructures are proven to be single crystals with cubic structure, and they both grow along the [001] direction. Formation of both nanostructures is attributed to the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism, and the content of boron vapor is proposed to be the reason for their different morphologies at various evaporation distances. Field emission (FE) measurements show that the maximum current density of both the as-grown nanowires and nanopencils can be several hundred μA/cm2, and their FN plots deviate only slightly from a straight line. Moreover, we prefer the generalized Schottky–Nordheim (SN) model to comprehend the difference in FE properties between the nanowires and nanopencils. The results reveal that the nonlinearity of FN plots is attributable to the effect of image potential on the FE process, which is almost independent of the morphology of the nanostructures. All the research results suggest that the SmB6 nanostructures would have a more promising future in the FE area if their surface oxide layer was eliminated in advance.

Ab initio many-body perturbation theory and no-core shell model**Supported by National Key Basic Research Program of China (2013CB834402), National Natural Science Foundation of China (11235001, 11320101004, 11575007) and the CUSTIPEN (China-U.S. Theory Institute for Physics with Exotic Nuclei) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science (DE-SC0009971)

In many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) we always introduce a parameter Nshell to measure the maximal allowed major harmonic-oscillator (HO) shells for the single-particle basis, while the no-core shell model (NCSM) uses NmaxℏΩ HO excitation truncation above the lowest HO configuration for the many-body basis. It is worth comparing the two different methods. Starting from “bare” and Okubo-Lee-Suzuki renormalized modern nucleon-nucleon interactions, NNLOopt and JISP16, we show that MBPT within Hartree-Fock bases is in reasonable agreement with NCSM within harmonic oscillator bases for 4He and 16O in “close” model space. In addition, we compare the results using “bare” force with the Okubo-Lee-Suzuki renormalized force.

Interfacial nanobubbles produced by long-time preserved cold water**Project supported by the Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Open Research Project of the Large Scientific Facility of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11079050, 11290165, 11305252, 11575281, and U1532260), the National Key Basic Research Program of China

Interfacial gaseous nanobubbles which have remarkable properties such as unexpectedly long lifetime and significant potential applications, are drawing more and more attention. However, the recent dispute about the contamination or gas inside the nanobubbles causes a large confusion due to the lack of simple and clean method to produce gas nanobubbles. Here we report a convenient and clean method to effectively produce interfacial nanobubbles based on a pure water system. By adding the cold water cooled at 4°C for more than 48 h onto highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface, we find that the average density and total volume of nanobubbles are increased to a high level and mainly dominated by the concentrations of the dissolved gases in cold water. Our findings and methods are crucial and helpful for settling the newly arisen debates on gas nanobubbles.

A fatal outbreak of ST11 carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae in a Chinese hospital: a molecular epidemiological study

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae strains often cause life-threatening community-acquired infections in young and healthy hosts, but are usually sensitive to antibiotics. In this study, we investigated a fatal outbreak of ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by a new emerging hypervirulent K pneumoniae strain. The outbreak occurred in the integrated intensive care unit of a new branch of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China). We collected 21 carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae strains from five patients and characterised these strains for their antimicrobial susceptibility, multilocus sequence types, and genetic relatedness using VITEK-2 compact system, multilocus sequence typing, and whole genome sequencing. We selected one representative isolate from each patient to establish the virulence potential using a human neutrophil assay and Galleria mellonella model and to establish the genetic basis of their hypervirulence phenotype. All five patients had undergone surgery for multiple trauma and subsequently received mechanical ventilation. The patients were aged 53-73 years and were admitted to the intensive care unit between late February and April, 2016. They all had severe pneumonia, carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae infections, and poor responses to antibiotic treatment and died due to severe lung infection, multiorgan failure, or septic shock. All five representative carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae strains belonged to the ST11 type, which is the most prevalent carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae type in China, and originated from the same clone. The strains were positive on the string test, had survival of about 80% after 1 h incubation in human neutrophils, and killed 100% of wax moth larvae (G mellonella) inoculated with 1 × 106 colony-forming units of the specimens within 24 h, suggesting that they were hypervirulent K pneumoniae. Genomic analyses showed that the emergence of these ST11 carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent K pneumoniae strains was due to the acquisition of a roughly 170 kbp pLVPK-like virulence plasmid by classic ST11 carbapenem-resistant K pneumoniae strains. We also detected these strains in specimens collected in other regions of China. The ST11 carbapenem-resistant hypervirulent K pneumoniae strains pose a substantial threat to human health because they are simultaneously hypervirulent, multidrug resistant, and highly transmissible. Control measures should be implemented to prevent further dissemination of such organisms in the hospital setting and the community. Chinese National Key Basic Research and Development Program and Collaborative Research Fund of Hong Kong Research Grant Council.

Experimental simulation of violation of the Wright inequality by coherent light☆☆Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2011CBA00303 and 2013CB328700) and Basic Research Foundation of Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology (TNList).

In this paper, we investigate the simulation of violation of the Wright inequality by the classical optical experiment theoretically and experimentally. The feasibility of the simulation is demonstrated by theoretical analysis based on descriptions of the classical electrodynamics and quantum mechanics, respectively. Then, the simulation of violation of the Wright inequality is realized experimentally. The setup is based on a laser source, free-space optical devices and power meters. The experimental result violates the noncontextuality hidden variable bound, agreeing with the quantum bound. This method can be extended to other types of noncontextuality inequalities.

A 500–600 MHz GaN power amplifier with RC–LC stability network**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB339901).

A 500–600 MHz high-efficiency, high-power GaN power amplifier is designed and realized on the basis of the push-pull structure. The RC–LC stability network is proposed and applied to the power amplifier circuit for the first time. The RC–LC stability network can significantly reduce the high gain out the band, which eliminates the instability of the power amplifier circuit. The developed power amplifier exhibits 58.5 dBm (700 W) output power with a 17 dB gain and 85% PAE at 500–600 MHz, 300 μs, 20% duty cycle. It has the highest PAE in P-band among the products at home and abroad.

Synthesis and magnetotransport properties of Bi2Se3 nanowires**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2014CB921103 and 2013CB921103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11274003 and 91421109), and Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid-State Lighting and Energy-Saving Electronics,China.

Bi2Se3, as a three-dimensional topological insulator, has attracted worldwide attention for its unique surface states which are protected by time-reversal symmetry. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of high-quality single-crystalline Bi2 Se3 nanowires. Bi2Se3 nanowires were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method via gold-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. The structure and morphology were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. In magnetotransport measurements, the Aharonov—Bohm (AB) effect was observed in a nanowire-based nanodevice, suggesting the existence of surface states in Bi2Se3 nanowires.

High-Efficiency Generation of 0.12 mJ, 8.6 Fs Pulses at 400nm Based on Spectral Broadening in Solid Thin Plates**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11434016, 11574384 and 11674386, and the National Key Basic Research Program of China under Grant Nos 2013CB922401 and 2013CB922402.

We demonstrate efficient generation of continuous spectrum centered at 400 nm from solid thin plates. By frequency doubling of 0.8 mJ, 30 fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses with a BBO crystal, 0.2 mJ, 33 fs laser pulses at 400 nm are generated. Focusing the 400-nm pulses into 7 thin fused silica plates, we obtain 0.15 mJ continuous spectrum covering 350–450 nm. After compressing by 3 pairs of chirped mirrors, 0.12 mJ, 8.6 fs pulses are achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that sub-10-fs pulses centered at 400 nm are generated by solid thin plates, which shows that spectral broadening in solid-state materials works not only at 800 nm but also at different wavelengths.

Optimization of wide band mesa-type enhanced terahertz photoconductive antenna at 1550 nm**Project supported by the National Instrument Program of China (Grant No. 2012YQ140005), the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2013CB932904 and 2016YFB0402403), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61274125 and 61435012).

A mesa-type enhanced InGaAs/InAlAs multilayer heterostructure (MLHS) terahertz photoconductive antenna (PCA) at 1550 nm is demonstrated on an InP substrate. The InGaAs/InAlAs superlattice multilayer heterostructures are grown and studied with different temperatures and thickness ratios of InGaAs/InAlAs. The PCAs with different gap sizes and pad sizes are fabricated and characterized. The PCAs are evaluated as THz emitters in a THz time domain spectrometer and we measure the optimized THz bandwidth in excess of 2 THz.

Atomic pair distribution function method development at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1232112) and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2012CB825700).

The atomic pair distribution function (PDF) reveals the interatomic distance in a material directly in real-space. It is a very powerful method to characterize the local structure of materials. With the help of the third generation synchrotron facility and spallation neutron source worldwide, the PDF method has developed quickly both experimentally and theoretically in recent years. Recently this method was successfully implemented at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). The data quality is very high and this ensures the applicability of the method to study the subtle structural changes in complex materials. In this article, we introduce in detail this new method and show some experimental data we collected.

Luminosity measurements for the R scan experiment at BESIII**Supported by National Key Basic Research Program of China (2015CB856700), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (10935007, 11121092, 11125525, 11235011, 11322544, 11335008, 11375170, 11275189, 11079030, 11475164, 11475169, 11005109, 10979095, 11275211), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Large-Scale Scientific Facility Program; Joint Large-Scale Scientific Facility Funds of the NSFC and CAS (11179007, U1232201,

By analyzing the large-angle Bhabha scattering events e+e− → (γ)e+e− and diphoton events e+e− → (γ)γγ for the data sets collected at center-of-mass (c.m.) energies between 2.2324 and 4.5900 GeV (131 energy points in total) with the upgraded Beijing Spectrometer (BESIII) at the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPCII), the integrated luminosities have been measured at the different c.m. energies, individually. The results are important inputs for the R value and J/ψ resonance parameter measurements.

High quality electromagnetically induced transparency spectroscopy of 87Rb in a buffer gas cell with a magnetic field**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB922003) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91421305, 91121005, 11674359, and 91436106).

We have studied the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) of 87Rb vapor with a buffer gas in a magnetic field at room temperature. It is found that the spectral lines caused by the velocity selective optical pump effects get much weaker and wider when the sample cell is mixed with a 5-Torr N2 gas while the EIT signal is kept almost unchanged. A weighted least-square fit is also developed to remove the Doppler broadening completely. This spectral method provides a way to measure the Zeeman splitting with high resolution, for example, the Λ-type EIT resonance splits into four peaks on the D2 line of 87Rb in the thermal 2-cm vapor cell with a magnetic field along the electric field of the linearly polarized coupling laser. The high-resolution spectrum can be used to lock the laser to a given frequency by tuning the magnetic field.

Application of SNiPER framework to BESIII physics analysis**Supported by Joint Large-Scale Scientific Facility Funds of the NSFC and CAS (U1532258), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-13-0342) and Shandong Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar (JQ201402), National Key Basic Research Program of China under Contract (2015CB856700).

A fast physics analysis framework has been developed based on SNiPER to process the increasingly large data sample collected by BESIII. In this framework, a reconstructed event data model with SmartRef is designed to improve the speed of Input/Output operations, and necessary physics analysis tools are migrated from BOSS to SNiPER. A real physics analysis e+e− → π+π−J/ψ is used to test the new framework, and achieves a factor of 10.3 improvement in Input/Output speed compared to BOSS. Further tests show that the improvement is mainly attributed to the new reconstructed event data model and the lazy-loading functionality provided by SmartRef.

Generation of femtosecond laser pulses at 263 nm by K3B6O10Cl crysta**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB922402), the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11434016 and 61575219), and the International Joint Research Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61210017).

The third harmonic generation (THG) of a linear cavity Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifier by use of a K3B6O10Cl (KBOC) crystal is studied for the first time. Output power up to 5.9 mW is obtained at a central wavelength of 263 nm, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 4.5% to the second harmonic power. Our results show a tremendous potential for nonlinear frequency conversion into the deep ultraviolet range with the new crystal and the output laser power can be further improved.